VK\K/n-:i,A. 



777 



there for weeks. This act and the arbitrary <ii - 

 solution uf Congress that followed it caused those 

 1'rii-nds of order who had sto<xl l>y tin- 1 'resident 

 ..\er in urea i mmiliers to the Opposition and 

 greatly stivn^thrnrd tin- cause of the revolution. 

 Palario offered to resign tin- I 'residency as soon 

 as his successor should be elected andthecentral- 

 i/.fd I'onii of government proclaimed under the 

 in -w ('oust it ui ion. and when Congress refused 

 these terms he closed it with military force and 

 ordered the arrest of the members "who voted 

 against his proposal. While Gen. Crespo was 

 gathering, arming, and drilling an insurgent. 

 army in the South, Caracas was placed under 

 martial law by the President. All men suspected 

 of disloyalty were placed behind bars, and when 

 the prisons overflowed private houses were turned 

 into jails. Kvery member of the Federal Council 

 was imprisoned. A strict censorship was kept 

 over the press, and no news was published except 

 such as the Government gave out. Eventually 

 all the newspapers except the Government organ 

 were suppressed or discontinued. Troops patrolled 

 the city and guarded the outlets to prevent the 

 supporters of the insurgents from getting away. 

 Many of the merchants were imprisoned and 

 trade came to a standstill. The President, in an- 

 swer to a manifesto of the leader of the revolu- 

 tionists, issued a proclamation disclaiming any 

 personal motives or ambitious designs, and sol- 

 emnly declaring that his only purpose was to 

 safeguard the liberties of the people, preserve the 

 independence of the States, and avert the horrors 

 of civil war. The principal passages were as 

 follow : 



l-'illow Patriots Complying with a solemn duty as 

 President of the Union, as guardian of the tremen- 

 dous responsibilities of the future, as leader of the 

 irrand revolution toward liberal reform, and as prin- 

 cipal and most zealous guardian of the sovereign 

 autonomy of the States and of the rights and privi- 

 leges of the municipalities, which are the prime 

 si mrce, of authority in any democratic government, 

 I announce unto you the imminent danger which 

 menaces the popular cause and the most noble of 

 the aspirations of the Republic, viz., the reform of 

 the Constitution sanctioned by the last Congress 

 and by the Legislatures of the States in past sessions 

 ami their declared opinion in favor of its immediate 

 consideration and adoption. My period of constitu- 

 tional command is now nearing its end. In sight 

 there is the road to happiness, but in a dark corner 

 I see a shadow that threatens to dispel this happi 

 ness, and it belongs i,, m( - as helmsman of the ship 

 of state to call the necessary forces of the nation to 

 its rescue. 



The most terrible catastrophe that can happen to 

 the liberal cause is being quietly prepared, and with 

 it the federation, with all its great conquests and 

 hopes, must perish. Why ? Because a group of men 

 in the body of the National Congress some because 

 of personal ambition, others for hatred to the great 

 Liberal party are prompting the immoral coinuina- 

 tion, \\ hich \\ ill cover the Republic with blood, with 

 ruin, and with desolation a sinister group, a imt 

 hybrid offspring of the most vicious ambition and 

 of the most unpatriotic of all schemes. The former 

 Cniiirress has already voted upon the reform Con- 

 stitution, approving it without a single protest or 

 saving vote. The very same people are to-day con- 

 spiring for a fresh postponement of its consideration 

 and are conjuring up a farce more in accordance 

 with popular aspirations. It was submitted to the 

 Legislatures of the States, eight of which approved 

 it unanimously, without any alteration whatsoever, 



ami seven have asked for its immediate enforcement. 

 It is a universal rule of riijht that the i ommainlcr 

 bat t0 submit suggestions for instructions to those 

 uh'.-h,- commands, and it is an undeniable prin- 

 ciple i.f the nioM pure and radical liberalism that, 

 the follower is at all times authorized to n-\ ( ,ke the 

 powers which he has conferred upon his leader. 

 Congress, then, has in the pre-.-nt CUM- a limited 

 sovereignty by an express and authoritative vote of 

 the States, the municipalities and the people, who 

 reserve unto themselves, as accorded by constitu- 

 tional mandates, their immediate sovereignty over 

 themselves. From the moment 11 at high hoih ex- 

 ceeds its powers or debases the nature of this man- 

 date, it exercises an authority usurped from the 

 people and consequently is null and without effect. 

 The constitutional point cannot be clearer, more 

 simple, and more evident in favor of the people, and 

 the Representatives and Senators cannot legally 

 separate themselves from a liberal crilici-m. 



From the eminence of the supreme magistracy, I 

 am and will be principal guardian of the Constitu- 

 tion and the law, of your guaranties, and of your 

 rights. I am and will be the watchful sentinel of 

 peace and ever the patient champion for public 

 liberty. And never shall I permit the Liberal flap, 

 that symbol of glorious conquests, of civilization, 

 and of progress, to be trampled upon, conquered, 

 and humiliated. The ignominious epoch of autocracy 

 has passed forever. I do not aspire to establish a 

 personal government, which I in my strict republican 

 convictions abhor, and I swear that I do not accept 

 nor will I accept, even though force be used toward 

 me, a new constitutional period of power. This 

 would be a stain on the country and an indelible 

 stain upon the liberal cause. 



I simply aspire to revindicate the autonomy of 

 the twenty States of the ancient and glorious federa- 

 tion and to give back unto the people a suffrage at 

 once universal, direct, and secret for the election of 

 its magistrates. 



The revolts that were begun in various States 

 were fostered and aided greatly from the begin- 

 ning by the ex-President, Dr. Rojas Paul, whom 

 Palacio has exiled on account of his influence 

 and popularity. His agents and other exiles in 

 the West Indies procured arms and ammuni- 

 tion, which were smuggled in to the troops that 

 Crespo and his lieutenants were drilling. 



The Cabinet resigned after Palacio's assump- 

 tion of the dictatorship, and a new one was ap- 

 pointed on March 28, which was composed as fol- 

 lows : Minister of the Interior, Dr. Benito Guil- 

 lerte Andueza ; Minister of Foreign Relations, 

 Dr. Manuel Clement e Urbaneza ; Minister of 

 War, Gen. Julio F. Barrio ; Minister of Agricul- 

 ture, Manuel Antonio Mattas ; Minister of the 

 Treasury, Dr. Jose Angel Ruiz ; Minister of Posts 

 and Telegraphs, Gen. Dominio A. Carvajol ; 

 Minister of Public Instruction, Dr. Manuel Pala- 

 cios Rengifo ; Minister of Public Works, Carlos 

 Jose Monagas. 



Civil War. Ex-President Joaquin Crespo, who 

 had retired from active political life, and was 

 managing his extensive coffee plantations in Za- 

 inora. offered his services to the exiled Senators 

 and Deputies in Curac/oa and Trinidad, anjl they 

 formed a Junta and nominated him Commander- 

 in-chief of the Constitutionalist or Congressional 

 forces. The people of his province who had 

 taken part in the rebellion of 1888 had hidden in 

 mountain caves about 800 rifles, which Crespo 

 had afterward refused to deliver up to Rojas Paul. 

 These weapons served to arm the nucleus of the 

 insurgent army which he now set about raising 



